Has Anyone Seen the Dreamer?

A little girl sits alone in her room. Her shelves are lined with her treasures...books. These books open up a world of wonder, a world yet unknown. They are full of adventures and knights and mysteries. These books are not simply words on a page. They offer the possibility of something more. They are dreams. Dreams of a life grander than the life she knows, the life she lives day after day.

This girl sits for hours dreaming and imagining and creating. Notebooks are filled with her childhood scribbles--scribbles that reveal her dreamer's heart. She reads her stories to her captive audience of dolls and teddy bears. She sings her songs as if she were Broadway's newest star performing to a sellout crowd. Her imagination runs wild and free. Someday she will be a star and a dancer and a teacher and a veterinarian and a mommy. Someday all of her dreams will come true.

When exactly does that little dreamer stop dreaming? When does she decide her dreams will never be a reality? When does she stop believing that she can be anything she wants to be? Do anything she wants to do? When does her life become nothing more than getting by?

Somewhere along the way, we all stop dreaming. Someone says, "You're not smart enough to do that." Another person warns, "It's too hard. Try something else." Still another tells us we're nowhere near beautiful enough, strong enough, good enough. What makes us think we deserve spectacular when everyone else lives in the mundane?

Every time someone offers their "advice," a little piece of the dream is stolen. Eventually the dream that started out too big to contain becomes a tiny memory. In an attempt to repair the brokenness of shattered dreams, that tiny memory gets buried. Deep inside. Covered by layers and layers of reasons to choose the safe route. Before you know it, the dream has virtually disappeared.

At times it seems easier to leave the dream buried or forget it existed in the first place. The dream was a mere figment of an innocent, child-like imagination, unmarred by the harsh reality of life in a world of former dreamers. Real world is safer. Small dreams mean small disappointment and small hurt.

Occasionally something alerts our subconscious to the buried dream. We try to remember. We try to picture a life where dreams become reality. We peel back a few layers. We allow ourselves the luxury of creating something new. Another layer...we catch a glimpse of the little girl, sitting in her cubby hole, dreaming of a life outside her four walls.

It is at that moment that we measure the cost of dreaming again. Can we rebuild the dream that was shattered? Were we created for something more than the mundane? Will the pain be worth it?

I am learning that what matters in life is most definitely worth the possibility of pain. I am learning that I cannot endure a life of ordinary. A life without risks. I will no longer sit on the sidelines watching others fulfill their dreams while mine remain buried. I was created for more than just getting by. I am dreaming big. I am dreaming impossible. I am dreaming creative, beautiful, secure, life-changing. What's more...I am dreaming God dreams. Dreams so outlandishly big that only God can make them happen. That's the kind of God I serve -- a God who makes dreams come true.

Let the dreaming begin. Who's with me?

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

People need dreams, there's as much nourishment in 'em as food.
Dorothy Gilman

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Psalm 37:4-6